Azumanga Rampage!
by Watanagashi-hen
Summary: After finding a strange can of soda, Tomo makes a bet with Yomi, and loses. So, she is forced to drink the whole thing. After a while, something odd starts happening to her, and all hell breaks loose! Azu/Rampage X-over. Rated T for some violence.
1. Prologue : Scum Soda

_Another fanfic? Yep, another fanfic!_

_Another crossover? You betcha! I love doing crossovers!_

_So what crossover is this time? Well, do you know/remember that game Rampage? Where you could choose a monster and had to destroy cities, vehicles and eat people? Yeah, that's the one!_

_Are you kidding? No, I'm not._

_Another Azu fic? Yes, deal with it XD_

_What about the others? I'm still working on Biological Nightmare and The Daughter of Stone. I've put Hotter Than Hell on hold, and am rewriting the first 5 chapters. As for Lasciva Morbida (for which I've already posted a prologue), I'm delaying that one for another time._

_Are we supposed to take this seriously? Nope, not at all. But neither is the game. The plot is thin and it doesn't really make much sense. This is just for fun. I just want you to enjoy this, so check your brain at the door and try to do so!_

_Azumanga Daioh is owned by Kiyohiko Azuma, and Rampage is owned by Midway. I don't own anything, except for some minor original characters.  
_

* * *

Prologue : Scum Soda

Scumlabs; a strange and enigmatic company that has spread worldwide during the last few decades. Even though more and more facilities started to show up in the world's major cities during the early eighties, barely anyone actually knew what they did exactly. It was like, even though there was this strange factory right next door to you that was bursting with activity day in day out, they never seemed to produce anything you could buy in stores, something you could touch or look at. But it was obvious that these guys were stinking rich either way. The head principal of Scumlabs, Eustas DeMonic, rarely showed himself to the public, but when he did, his appearance was that of a typical older rich man. Big Cuban cigar in his mouth, fancy suit, and always surrounded by state of the art technology; robots were no exception at all. It was around this time, around 20 years ago, that Scumlabs thrived in the world economy, despite being one of the most cryptic companies ever. That was, until that incident...

So many people saw it happen, and some even saw it coming. The Scumlabs incident turned into a worldwide catastrophe. It caused all the facilities to be completely wiped off the map, as well as causing severe damage to many of the world's cities. Thousands of people died. It was also during this disaster that DeMonic mysteriously disappeared, although his remnants were claimed to be found by the American government. However, the government cleanly tucked them away, and diverted all blame from Scumlabs, saying it was nothing more but an "unfortunate accident". In just a few years, the whole happening was completely sweeped under the rug. The world moved on and started to rebuild, but Scumlabs wouldn't pop up again for at least 10 years. But after that time, Scumlabs would finally come alive again, with upgraded facilities showing up in the largest, most important capitals of the world, and later moving on to some of the smaller cities.

But the incident opened many people's eyes. Rumours of Scumlabs actually producing military products for biological warfare went around the globe quickly, so the second rising of the company was greeted with much negative response from the public. Also, they demanded an explanation of what happened back then, and what they did with the perpetrators that were responsible for the mayhem, all these years ago.

But Scumlabs kept everything quiet, and constantly delayed the explanations. To soothe all the negative attention, and in an attempt to weaken the probability of the rumours, Scumlabs decided to create products for the people. Simple products, like drinks and foods that anyone could enjoy, that you could find in your regular supermarket. Their first attempt turned out to be a carbonated beverage called Scum Soda, said to be the best tasting soda in the world, according to them. The soda, still in its experimental stage, was tested on several volunteers. Everyone had the same reaction; it was GREAT SODA! Unfortunately, after about a half an hour, all of them suffered from some...negative side effects. The individuals were contained, and no other word was spoken about it.

After these flops, Scumlabs recalled the Scum Soda cans. Putting this on the market would be a disaster, and could cause the company to go bankrupt again. They decided to have the contents of the drink tested again, carefully, so they could get it ready for general consumption. They could make millions with this stuff, but it could also mean their second downfall.

This is where the story begins; in the Scumlabs facility located in Osaka, Japan.

Kawaguchi Arata, the principal of the Osakan Scumlabs facility, as well as the head of the Japanese branch, sat in his office behind his big desk, and studied the results that had returned from the lab. In his office with him was Imaizumi Masaru, head scientist of the factory. He stood there quietly as his superior went over the details. Finally, Kawaguchi, a man in his late forties, looked over the papers and stared him straight in the eyes.

"Are you serious about this?" he said with a sincere tone.

"Absolutely!" Masaru answered. "All the specimens we have researched contain small amounts of mutatoxic waste. We don't know how they got in the beverage, but it's most likely that they've spilled into the main silo somehow during production."

"So you're telling me that those idiots from the American branch, the so called most competent branch of all, tested this soda, that was contaminated all along, on regular people?"

"Yes, that's how it turns out, Kawaguchi-sama. Other facilities all around the world have come up with the same results."

Kawaguchi-san calmly layed the the documents down on his desk and crossed his arms. He sighed. Then, his body began trembling, and he suddenly slammed his fist down on the desk.

"This is an OUTRAGE!" he yelled angrily, startling Masaru well. "How could they mess up like this? Do they want to drive this company into the ground again, after all the hardships to recover from last time? If this gets out, Scumlabs will be ruined!"

After he was done raging, he recollected himself and coughed nervously.

"Make sure no knowledge of this makes it out. Not of the incidents, not of the contamination, nothing, and I mean NOTHING about this can leave this company, understood?"

Masaru nodded. He knew better than to go against his boss. Besides, he was right.

"I don't believe it... You know this is going to cost Scumlabs a lot of money, right? Anyway, contact the facility in Tokyo and tell them to send all their Scum Soda units here. We are going to eliminate each and single one of them right here, as soon as possible."

"No need to worry about that, Kawaguchi-sama," Masaru assured him. "We have already contacted the Tokyo facility, and a truck is on the way as we speak."

"Good," Kawaguchi sighed. "Make sure our employees are ready. We are starting the operation as soon as they get here."

"Will do!" said Masaru. He took a bow and was about to leave, when there was a knock at the door. Kawaguchi's secretary, Inoue Hanako, a young woman in her early twenties, practically stormed into his office. Whatever she had to say, it seemed extremely urgent.

"Kawaguchi-sama, I'm sorry to bother you, but this is an emergency. I just got a call from the Tokyo facility. The truck that was on its way here was in an accident!"

Kawaguchi's eyes widened in horror. His body began tremling again and cold sweat broke out.

"Wh...what? What about the content of the truck?"

"Well, they said something about cans being strewn across the road..."

The pen that Kawaguchi was fumbling around with, broke when he clenched his fist in frustration.

"This is horrible... Tell them to care of this mess, immediately! And, also tell them to make sure that nobody else gets their hands on one of those cans, you got that? Not even the police!"

"Y-yes, Kawaguchi-sama."

With that, she left. Masaru, who was still in the room and obviously heard everything, gulped and slowly walked out.

"I'll be taking my leave now, excuse me..."

Kawaguchi sat there, alone, wiping away the sweat on his forehead. _They'd better come back with some good news for a change._

A few hours later, everything was reported as "taken care of" by Scumlabs Tokyo. The traffic accident occured in Shinjuku. The truck carrying the Scum Soda cans was struck in the side by a transport vehicle on a cross section. There were no casualties, but both vehicles were totalled, and both drivers suffered minor injuries. Scumlabs confiscated all soda cans and sended them on their way to Osaka again, where they were destroyed shortly after. Satisfied that all ended well, Kawaguchi contacted other foreign facilities to destroy their units. He sighed a sigh of relief and was ready to move forward again. Soon, the American branch would remake Scum Soda, with better care this time, and even tastier than before, they promised. It would become a worldwide succes! Or not?

Unfortunately, once again, Scumlabs had blundered greatly. When they thought they had found and collected all the cans at the site of the accident, they were wrong. One can slipped past them, which had rolled underneath a parked car at the side of the road due to the impact. This one simple can of beverage would bring forth another catastrophe, and sooner than anyone could expect.


	2. Act 1 : The Bet

_Chapter 2 is already out! W00T!_

_To avoid confusion, this is chapter 2, but because the first one was a prologue, I called this one Act 1, because this is where the story really starts._

_Also, be warned, because it might get a little disturbing near the end of this chapter. That's why I added horror to the story's genres. But there's also some funny stuff, and it should lighten up in the next chapter._

_Anyway, that's all I had to say, so enjoy!_

* * *

Act 1 : The Bet

Funny how the bulk of the stories start off by saying something like "it was a beautiful and warm day, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and there was no cloud to be seen in the sky".

Not this one though! Because the weather wasn't all that great. It wasn't bad; temperatures were okay, there were many clouds, but it wasn't raining, and there was a nice breeze. In short, the weather was adequate. Not great, just okay.

Anyway, after searching the streets of Tokyo, we come across two of our "heroines". They were two girls. One of them was slightly taller than the average Japanese woman, with long, brown hair, mildly chubby and a pair of rather big glasses resting on her nosebridge. She was, on first sight, the nerd, the brainiac, the bookworm of the duo, but she would kick the crap outta you if agitated. So in a way, she was alot more badass than most people expected. She was none other than Koyomi Mizuhara. But the other was her polar opposite; quite a short girl, with medium hair length, bordering somewhere between black and dark brown, and with an impossible haircut; several thick strands of hair sticking out like spikes at the end, resting right below her neck. If Tokyo were a village, she would be the village idiot. She was the unlimited source of energy, and the whino of the duo, Tomo Takino, self dubbed as "The Wildcat".

The sailor uniforms betrayed the fact that both teenagers were on their way to school. Tomo swung her briefcase back and forth excited while constantly bumping into her taller friend, much to her annoyance.

"Dammit Tomo, knock it off!" Yomi yelled. "Why can't you just be calm in the morning, if just for once!"

"Hahahaha," Tomo laughed out loud before bumping into her again. "Why? What's wrong? Been cramming the whole night again?"

"Yes," Yomi grunted. "But that's just because I have to catch up to compensate for that week I was sick, remember?"

"Yeah yeah, I remember," Tomo smiled as she brought her hand to the back of her head. "That's too bad, cause I slept like a rose last night! This morning, I had a huge breakfast, and I feel great! I feel like I could take on Japan, nay, the whole world! Whoooo!"

"Really...good for you," Yomi said while yawning. She really hated it when Tomo was this hyperactive; you'd figure she'd get used to it after a while, but no.

"Oh, that's right! We've got gym class today! 100 meter dash, right? Oh man, what luck! I'm ready for it today, no way I'll lose to you! I might even beat Sakaki, no, I WILL!"

Yomi just wished she could put a cork in Tomo's mouth or something. Constantly yapping and yapping without ever stopping. Besides, she didn't even come close to beating her last time, and the time before, and before. What made her think she might even beat Sakaki, who was the fastest of the whole school. Yomi just responded with a "yeah, yeah" and brushed it off her. Suddenly, Tomo stuck her arm out and Yomi bumped into it.

"Hey, now what?"

"What's that?"

Yomi looked at where Tomo was pointing at. By the side of the road, in the gutter was a green cilindrical object. Something was written on it with green and red letters. Tomo crept up to the edge of the sidewalk, crouched down and picked it up. It was a can, kind of resembling a Sprite can. Tomo stood up and read the name out loud.

"Scum Soda? Eeew!" was her reaction.

"Are you serious?" Yomi laughed, and looked over her shoulder. "Wow, you are serious... Scum Soda. Who in God's name would call their soda that? It sounds totally disgusting!"

"Yeah," Tomo said. "But then again, who would call their drink Pocari Sweat?"

"Touché..."

Tomo laughed and gave Yomi a high five, and then turned back to the can. "But this is interesting... I've never heard of Scum Soda before, and I know alot about sodas."

"Really?" Yomi asked surprised.

"Yeah, sure! Have you tried that new Jelly drink?"

"Jelly drink?"

"Yeah, it's pretty much a can of jelly, with the little chunks in it and such."

"That's disgusting, Tomo."

"Really? It's become my favorite."

Tomo kept staring at the strange soda can, kind of curious, but also a bit revolted. "You think this fell off a truck or something? I dunno but, maybe we should try it."

"Tomo, do you really plan to drink something called SCUM Soda?" she said, and accentuated the Scum part so Tomo would surely get it. "I'm sure as hell not, and to be frank, neither should you."

Tomo frowned and sighed. "Okay, you got me, I don't. But, maybe it's just the name! Maybe it's a Halloween drink or something."

"It's summer!" Yomi exclaimed. "Just throw the damn thing away, will you? I don't trust it at all."

"Fine, I will."

Tomo walked up to the nearest dumpster and opened it up. She was holding the can above it and was about drop it, but before she did, she got an idea. A diabolical idea! A mean grin formed on her face and she pulled her hand away.

"Hang on a second. I got it!" she chuckled.

"Got what? Just get rid of it already!"

Tomo continued to chuckle and held the can firmly in her hand. "I won't. I changed my mind and I'm keeping it."

"Tomo, c'mon..." Yomi tried to reason with her. "You don't seriously want to drink it, do you?"

Tomo shook her head. "Nope, not at all. But how about a little wager?"

Yomi cornered her eyes and sighed. "Forget about it."

"No no, let me finish. Today, at gym, I will challenge you to the 100 meter dash. The person who loses the race..."

Tomo built in a long pause. Useless, because Yomi already knew what was coming. Yet for some reason, she tensely waited for the rest. Tomo squinted her eyes and grinned, and held the can up and shook it side to side.

"...has to drink this!"

Yomi facepalmed. "You're an idiot, Tomo."

"Huh? How so?"

"Because you've never won from me before. There's no way I'll lose to you now either."

"So you accept then?" Tomo said slyly.

Yomi choked on her words, and then huffed. "Fine, have it your way then. But if that's how is gonna be, let's make it a bit more interesting! The person who loses has to drink the whole thing, so not just a bit, but the whole can! But you'd better not complain when it's nasty and you get sick afterwards!"

"That's more like it!" Tomo cheered. "You're on!"

"Good, now let's get going already. We're gonna be late."

Tomo placed the mysterious can in her briefcase and they both continued their journey to school. On their way, Yomi wondered if maybe she pushed it too far. She was confident that she would win the bet, so it wasn't that. But what if something were to happen to Tomo if she'd drink that? She could end up in the hospital, or even worse. But maybe Tomo was right, maybe it was just an intentionally silly name. It was still a soda after all. Maybe it was foreign or something.

After a few hours of regular schooltime, the hour of reckoning dawned upon the two girls. It was time for gym class. Who had to drink the soda with the nasty name? It would be decided in just a few minutes. At the sidelines stood a bunch of their friends. The quiet and shy, yet incredibly athletic (and well endowed) girl who was mentioned before, Sakaki. Runner up in both the athletism and boob department, but not exactly the brightest of the bunch, and we're not talking about her tan, Kagura. The one who forms the notorious Knucklehead gang with both the latter girl and Tomo, the slow and dimwitted, yet surprisingly sharp at times, Ayumu Kasuga, better known as "Osaka". And last but not least, the youngest of the bunch, the genius midget with the supernatural pigtails, and the girl who seemed most out of place, Chiyo Mihama. The rest really wasn't that important. Yomi and Tomo, well, mostly Tomo, already showed them the odd soda can and told them about the details. Everyone seemed to agree that this wasn't exactly their best idea, judging from the name of the soda, but Yomi told them to...just let it go. As both Tomo and Yomi were getting ready for the moment of truth, the others were discussing the outcome of the race.

"So, whaddaya guys think?" Kagura asked, "besides that this is the dumbest idea ever?"

"Well, Idaknow, but Yomi-san looks awful tired, and Tomo-chan seems ta be on top o' the world," said Osaka. "Maybe Tomo-chan could win this."

"But Yomi-san has never lost to Tomo-chan before. She's a pretty fast runner, after all," young Chiyo argued.

"Yeah, my money's on Yomi-san all the way. To be brutally honest, I'd never bet on Tomo, for anything," said Kagura. "What do you think, Sakaki-san?" she asked as she turned to her.

Sakaki just hummed and nodded in agreement.

Kagura crossed her arms and smiled. "As I thought."

Finally, Minamo "Nyamo" Kurosawa made it to the scene. She was one of the school's few gym teachers, and a pretty damn fine one at that, as most male students would agree *wink wink*. She walked towards the race track, armed with her trademark clipboard and whistle.

"Okay, by request of both of you, the first race will be Yomi-san versus Tomo-chan. I don't know what this is about, but I'm fine with that. So both contestants, get ready."

Yomi and Tomo were holding a good old fasion staredown before the match. Both were throwing death glares at eachother and taunting one another.

"Hope you'll be enjoying your Scum Soda soon, Tomo," Yomi grinned maniacally.

"Be sure to hold your nose as you chug it all down, Ko-yo-mi-kun," the other chanted.

"Ahem," Nyamo coughed. "Get ready please!"

Both Tomo and Yomi took place in the starting blocks, right next to eachother and looked at eachother one more time.

"Alright! Get set! Three, two, one!"

Nyamo blew her whistle and signalled the start of the race. With this, both Yomi and Tomo launched forward, and much to everyone's surprise...

"Whoa, Tomo's takin' the lead!" Osaka gasped.

"Yeah, her acceleration is really good, I'll give her that," said Kagura. "But..."

Tomo could already smell victory. Yomi wasn't even in her field of vision, so she wasn't even close, she figured.

"Hahahaha! Alright, I got this," she said between panting.

"What are you talking about?"

Much to her shock, Yomi had already caught up with her and was running right beside her.

"Wh...WHA?" Tomo exclaimed.

Tomo ran with everything she had, but she couldn't prevent Yomi from passing her by quickly. Before she even knew it, she had crossed the finish line.

"NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo! This can't be happening!"

"Ouch, poor Tomo-chan," Osaka uttered. "She really tried her best, didn't she?"

"Yeah, she ran gracefully, but she was just no match for Yomi-san in the end. But, then again, she was the one who proposed the whole bet, so..." Kagura reasoned.

"I guess she will be the one drinking that weird soda," Chiyo said.

As Tomo layed collapsed behind the finish line, gasping for air, Yomi was looking at her victoriously. Yet, she was a bit worried about what was going to happen now. Maybe she should just blow the whole thing off. Meanwhile, Tomo was approached by Nyamo, who was holding a stopwatch in her hand.

"My my my, great job, Tomo!" she smiled.

"Great job? Whaddaya mean? I lost," Tomo panted.

"Yes, but you completely pulverised your old record by nearly 2 seconds! That's quite an improvement, so you should be proud of yourself!"

Tomo layed her head down on the ground again and sighed long and hard. "Awesome," she muttered sarcastically.

As Nyamo announced the next race, Tomo slowly got up and walked towards the dressing room, where her briefcase was. Yomi saw her walking away and caught up with her.

"H-hey, Tomo, wait... Maybe we should just...forget about it, ya know..."

Tomo turned her head at her and Yomi blushed awkwardly.

"W-well, y-you see," she stammered. "I don't trust that stuff, and I don't want you drinking it. What if something happens to you?"

Tomo laughed softly and shook her head. "I see. But, I made the bet, and I lost it. Tough luck, but I gotta do it. Besides... I'm really desperate for a drink!" she wailed while looking at Yomi with big eyes.

Yomi looked down at the ground as Tomo walked away again, but she grabbed her by the arm before she could get away.

"Hey, ehm, how about this? At least spit it out if it tastes bad, okay?" she pleaded.

"Okay, fine."

Yomi accompanied Tomo to the dressing room, where they now sat on the bench together. Tomo had the can of Scum Soda in her hand.

"It's warm, damn..." she cursed.

Tomo opened the lid. A pssht sound was heard as the gas escaped the can. Carefully, Tomo brought her nose to the opening and she sniffed it.

"Doesn't smell too bad," she said optimistically.

Yomi watched her in tension as she slowly brought the can to her mouth. Tomo doubted for a second, and then took a sip. As soon as the liquid touched her tongue, her eyes went wide open. This made Yomi totally worried, and she quickly asked how it was.

Tomo swallowed and looked at the can again. "It's...good...! It's actually really good!" she said excited.

"Seriously?" Yomi said amazed.

"Yeah!" Tomo took another big gulp and gasped in satisfaction. "It kinda tastes like Sprite, but richer and without that stinging sensation in your troath."

Yomi sighed in relief and calmed her heart down. She wanted to give it a try herself, but decided to let her have it all. It was part of the bet after all. But she had barely made the decision, when Tomo crushed the can in her hand.

"What? You finished it already?" she exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Tomo cheered. "It just went down so easily! Screw that jelly drink, this one's my new favorite!"

"I see... Well, let's just go back outside before Nyamo notices," said Yomi.

"Not too sore about winning the bet, are you?" Tomo teased her on their way out.

"Nah, I'm cool. At least I got to beat you."

A half an hour passed and gym class was now over. Everyone was waiting in the classroom for the next session. It was Yukari Tanizaki's class, their insane homeroom teacher. Undependable, and totally psycho, everyone agreed that Yukari could be more annoying than Tomo, and a lot more intimidating. Unfortunately, or fortunately, she wasn't there yet, again. Probably ventured out into the city to buy something, and was running late. How she didn't get herself fired yet was a mystery to many.

"So, that soda you found turned out to be pretty good?" Kagura said.

"Yeah, Tomo drank the whole thing in a few seconds, in fact," Yomi answered. "Right, Tomo?"

Tomo was laying with her head down on the desk, totally still and quiet, not taking part in the conversation. "Ehh, yeah," she croaked.

"Cool, so what was it called again? Scum Soda? I gotta check that out!" the tanned girl replied, her head resting on her crossed arms. "Say, Tomo-chan, you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah... urgh... I'm fine..."

She didn't sound fine, that was for sure. Her voice was weak and cracking, and the usually energetic Wildcat now looked like she had gotten smacked over the head by a hammer. And that little "urgh" in her sentence didn't predict much good. Yomi got up and ran to her desk. She didn't look good either. She was sweating all over, her face was pale, and her eyes, which were wide open, had turned bloodshot. Actually, they weren't really bloodshot. The white of her eyes was actually turning deep red.

"Tomo? Hey, Tomo! What's the matter?" she asked concerned.

"I'm okay," she gulped. "I just feel a bit nauseous. I think I drank too fast."

Yomi moved her hair up and placed her hand on her forehead. "Nonsense, you're burning up! You're seriously sick! Come on, let's go see the school nurse so they can send you home."

Tomo didn't protest and slowly pushed herself up, but as she tried to stand, she lost her balance and fell over. Luckily, Yomi could catch her just in time.

"Damn, don't faint on me here. If Yukari-sensei shows up, tell her what happened, okay?" she said to the others. They nodded, and Yomi supported Tomo and her way out.

"You know, I've reconsidered what I said about that soda..." Kagura said.

All the others nodded in agreement.

Yomi and Tomo stumbled through the school hallway, heading for the nurse's office.

"I told you we should've just left that soda alone," Yomi scolded her. "Look at you!"

Then Tomo uttered something nearly uncomprehensive. Yomi leaned in closer to hear what she was saying. "I need...bathroom... Gotta...throw up...," is what she understood.

"Oh no, no no no, don't do that here!" she panicked. "Hang on, there's one around the corner!"

Yomi could literally feel Tomo's heartbeat against her arm, and her whole body was shaking in a fever attack. She hurried to drag Tomo, weak as a dishrag, across the corridor. But Tomo couldn't hold it in anymore. Without another warning, she vomited on the floor.

"Ah shit!" Yomi cursed. She noticed that Tomo's breathing grew unnaturally heavy, and her eyes turned more red by the second. She looked absolutely miserable; the content of her stomach dripping from her pale and dry lips. She had a feeling that she was dying on her. "Somebody help!" Yomi yelled in pure panic.

Her call was heeded seconds later by an unknown male student who stormed out of his classroom.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"G...get somebody to call an ambulance, quickly! This girl's very sick!" she rambled.

The boy obeyed and warned some of his classmates to call the hospital so they could send help.

"You, come with me," Yomi said to the boy. "We'll take her to the bathroom. Then, I'll go get the school nurse, and you keep an eye on her!"

The boy nodded and helped to support the sickly Tomo and carry her to the bathroom. Once there, they placed her into a toilet stall, where she continued to throw up.

"Her name's Tomo," Yomi explained in a rushed manner, "keep talking to her so she stays conscious. I'll be right back!"

Yomi ran out of the bathroom and to the school nurse as fast as she could. Adrenaline pumping through her blood, she ran and ran, cursing inside herself. "Damn Damn Damn!"

Meanwhile, the male student could hear Tomo hurling behind the stall door, gagging and emitting strange grunts. He did what Yomi told him to do; talk to her.

"Ehm, Tomo-san, are you okay? Don't worry, help is on the way. Your friend is hurrying to the nurse, and we've called for an ambulance. Tomo-san? Can you hear me?"

Tomo could hear him, a bit all too well. In fact, his talking hurt her ears. But she was completely out of breath, so she couldn't say anything back to him. She used what little strength she had left to lean on the toilet seat with her elbow, but her head was still hanging almost completely in the toilet bowl. And after another dose of vomit left her esophagus, she brought her shaking hand to her face to wipe off her mouth. She stopped moving. There was something on her face, right next to her nose. It was something stiff, yet thin, and bendable. Suspiciously, she bended it so she could see what it was.

"What the hell...?"

A hair? Yes, it was! There were whiskers growing on her face! What in the world was going on? Suddenly, she convulsed, and a sharp pain struck her all over her body. She grabbed the toilet seat so tightly that it shattered, and she saw parts of her arms and hands bulging and moving. Black fur like hairs started showing on her skin, and she could feel the teeth in her mouth growing with her tongue.

"Tomo-san? Tomo-san! What's happening in there?" the boy panicked at all this commotion. Suddenly, he could hear her screaming in there. Frightened at this unnatural sounding yelp, the boy stepped backwards until his back hit the sink. The whole room was shaking now, and the screaming turned into heavy growling. Then, everything in the room broke, and the boy screamed at the top of his lungs, for the very last time.

Yomi had made it to the nurse's office and did all the explanations to the woman. But when they were about to go back to the bathroom, there was this incredibly loud bang. The whole building vibrated and scared Yomi out of her wits.

"What was that?"

"An explosion?" the nurse guessed.

What followed was an eerie screech that sounded all across the school. After that, the building shook several more times, and more growls and hisses could be heard.

"And what was that?" Yomi asked rethorically. "Didn't sound like an explosion to me. My God, Tomo!"

Yomi once again ran back to the bathroom as fast as she could. But when she arrived there, she couldn't believe her eyes. The whole room was in ruins; completely destroyed. All the stalls were leveled, the sinks and toilets were broken, water spilled onto the floor richly and all the lights flickered eratically. Furthermore, there was now a gigantic hole leading outside where one of the stalls was before. The same stall as where they left Tomo. And what was more unsettling was that both Tomo and that boy were gone. Yomi stood there with eyes and mouth wide open for several seconds.

"What in the name of..."

She carefully walked towards the hole in the wall and part of the ceiling. Next to the demolished toilet bowl, she found the shredded sailor uniform that Tomo was wearing, as well as several stains of blood. She crouched down and picked up the remains of the uniform, only to drop it again right after. On the walls of the stall, now laying on the floor, there were more blood stains, and gigantic claw marks all over them.

Yomi didn't know what to think. She stared out of the hole at the city, that was well visible from there. Meanwhile, the nurse and several other people were in the destroyed bathroom too.

"W-we should call the police...," she said to them in a stuttering fashion.

_Tomo...what the hell happened here?_


	3. Act 2 : The Attack

_So... This story isn't quite doing that well... Chapter 2 only had a few reads so far. It might be bad, I dunno. You tell me!_

_But either way, here's chapter 3, act 2. When you read it, let me know what you think. Is this a good idea, or a horrible idea?_

_Enjoy, and don't forget to review.  
_

* * *

Act 2 : The Attack

Class 3, the class that Yomi and Tomo were part of, were all still waiting in their classroom. Because Yukari still hadn't shown up, everyone was just standing or sitting in groups, engaging in conversations. As were the four girls of the friends group; the only ones of that group still present in the room.

"Tomo looked pretty awful, huh?" said Osaka.

"Uhuh," Kagura agreed. "Like she was about to pass out."

"Think it had somethin' ta do with that soda?"

"I think so, especially since she was so full of energy just a half an hour ago. I bet there was something in that stuff that makes people sick."

"Or maybe 't was some sorta allergic reaction... Ya never know."

"Well, whatever it was, I hope she'll be okay," Chiyo said.

Both Osaka and Kagura nodded.

Meanwhile, Sakaki was sitting quietly at her desk. She was drawing something on a piece of paper with a ballpoint pen. It was a cat. Sakaki wasn't exactly the master of drawing, but it was obvious that it was a cat, at least to her. She looked at it for a second, thought about it, and then grabbed a black marker and coloured it in. The outlines were a little hard to see now, but it looked pretty good overall. Then she noticed that she might have made the teeth a little too big, but that didn't matter to her that much. She started daydreaming while looking at her new "masterpiece". Oh, how she longed to own one of those one day. But her mother was allergic, so it was out of the question, for now. But she made a vow that, one day when she went to live on her own, she would get one for sure. At least, if she could find one that wouldn't bite her all the time. Any colour would be fine, but she had a slight preference for black cats. She wasn't sure why, but she did. Sakaki was torn out of her daydream, when an incredibly loud noise literally shook her up. The whole room was shaking heavily for just a second, pretty much like a small earthquake. It was like something exploded in the building.

"What the Hell was that?" Kagura said startled.

"An explosion?" Osaka guessed.

"No, listen..."

A series of growls were now audible, and many rythmic tremors could be felt, which seemed to be coming closer and closer, until it stopped right above the classroom. Most of the students crawled away in a corner in fear. Something was on the roof of the school, growling and snarling viciously.

"W-we should get outta here," one of the guys said scared.

Carefully, the students, including our four girls, sneaked out of the classroom making as little noise as they could. Some of them already made it out the door, when a powerful blow caved in the ceiling. The lamp came loose and fell to the floor, dust and small pieces of rubble came down, the whole room shook and cracks formed on the walls.

"Shit, everybody out! Move it!" Kagura yelled.

Kagura, Chiyo, Osaka, Sakaki and several others made it out in time, but there were still some people left in the classroom.

"C'mon, what are you waiting for? Move your asses!" Kagura yelled at them.

Another slam followed, and a big hole formed in the ceiling. Dust and pieces of concrete flew all over the place. Kagura covered her face, and in the dust cloud, she saw a gigantic arm reaching down into the room, snatching one of the confused guys away. He yelped in terror, and was silenced one second later. Kagura heard that thing on the roof going "nom" and chewing on the poor, unfortunate individual. A few seconds later, the guy's shoe fell down from the hole again.

"It...ate him..." she muttered. "Someone just got eaten in there!" she now yelled to the others.

"Whut? Poor guy... If only we got to know 'em better when we had the chance..." Osaka said.

As everyone ran away frantically, screaming and flailing their arms in the air, the sounds on he ceiling suddenly went quiet. Kagura and the others stopped running and looked up.

"Is it gone?" Chiyo wondered.

"I dunno... I dun' hear anythin' anymore..." Osaka whispered.

After a few moments of eerie silence, the floor suddenly went down, and then up again. Everyone fell over from this tremendous shock, and all the windows in the vicinity shattered. That thing probably pounced down on the building with its entire weight. The four girls and the other people crawled to their feet and ran for it, as part of the school rapidly collapsed. As they were running away from all the destruction, there was a deafening and rather high pitched roar, so loud it made the whole structure shiver. Sakaki looked back, and in the thick drapery of dust, she saw a large, black figure, now standing on the same floor as they were. It was slamming around wildly, and devouring survivors. Sakaki and the others continued to run as the dust cloud quickly caught up with them and engulfed them.

Yomi looked out the hole in the restroom and saw the dust soaring around in the air. The building made several movements, up and down, left to right, and she heard many loud noises. Yomi bit her lip and rallied everyone to get out of the building as soon as possible. Whatever was going on, it didn't sound or look good. In the hallways, hundreds of students were running away to evacuate the building. Some of them were yelling "monster" over and over again. Yomi headed for the staircase and ran across a corridor with a whole row of windows to her left. Several people screamed bloody murder all of a sudden. Yomi looked out the window and saw a huge black creature hanging from the wall, very close to her. Then, it came crawling towards her, its huge body flashing by the window right in front of her. For a very brief moment, she could see its eye. It was red with the pupil dilated into a little slit. She thought she also saw some yellow around the pupil, but it came by so fast she couldn't tell for sure. Yomi stood there mesmerized at the sight of this monstrosity.

_Good Lord, what is that thing? Could this be the thing that took Tomo away?_

The monster climbed the wall sideways, and just moments later, Yomi saw its giant paw with sharp claws coming in through the window, slashing away at people running by. It managed to grab one, and pulled it out of the building.

_Oh man... Poor guy!_

In between the screams and growls, Yomi opened the window and, against her better judgement, stuck her head out of the window to get a better view of it. But it was gone already!

"Shit, were'd it go?"

She heard some loud thumps coming from the other block, but before she could see what was going on there, nearly half of that block exploded violently. Yomi held her arm in front of her face, and could just see that black thing jumping off behind the building.

_Jesus!_

Yomi continued to look for it, but all she could see was fire and black smoke. It appeared to be gone. Yomi frowned and decided to get out of the building already, but then she saw something launched up to sky. Yomi squinted her eyes because the sun was blinding her so she couldn't see what it was.

"Is that a...!"

It was coming down again, and heading right for her.

"Uh oh!"

Yomi made a graceful leap sideways and dodged the large object as it broke through the ceiling and landed in the hallway with a loud crash. It was a car; a familiar car. A silver Toyota Corolla. Yukari's car, also known as the Yukari-mobile. Yomi gulped as she watched the oil spill out of the cracks, and the hind wheel bouncing on the floor.

_That was close... Nearly kicked the bucket there. Yukari-sensei's not going to be happy about this._

Yomi stood up and ran towards the staircase so she could get out of there. She had stayed in this deathtrap long enough.

A few minutes later, most people had made it out of the building. Everyone that wasn't crushed or eaten at least. Kagura, Sakaki, Osaka and Chiyo looked at the school. It was in a pretty bad state, and that was putting it lightly. Holes, bite and clawmarks, and the most of the upper level collapsed, and what was still standing looked like it was about to fall apart at any time. Not to mention the big plume of black smoke and the red glow at the back. Yep, it was pretty much in ruins. At least that monster was gone by now. Kagura wiped off the dust on her clothes and turned to her friends.

"Did anyone see that...that thing?"

"I saw it, in the dust cloud," Sakaki spoke up. "I saw it eating people, but I couldn't tell what it was."

"Yeah, I saw it eating someone too. It was black, I'm sure of that."

"Wait a minute... Where are Tomo-chan and Yomi-san?" Chiyo interrupted.

"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen them since they left the classroom," said Kagura.

"Ya don't think that thing ate 'em or sumethin', do ya?" said Osaka.

Everyone looked around in the crowd for their missing friends, until...

"Hey, over there!" Sakaki called out, "It's Yomi!"

Yomi walked through the distressed crowd looking around, until she saw Sakaki waving at her.

"Everybody calm down and stay in an orderly fashion!" the school principal yelled through a megaphone in an attempt to calm down the mass of people. It didn't help much, since nearly everyone was panicking over what the hell just happened.

"I'm so glad you all made it out safe," Yomi said.

"Same here," Kagura answered. "But where's Tomo at?"

"Well...," Yomi said doubtfully. "I don't know. I left her in the bathroom with some guy I didn't know because she was throwing up. Then, I heard that noise, and when I got back to the bathroom, it was in ruins, and both Tomo and that guy were gone."

"That's awful!" Kagura yelled. "They must have been taken by that monster! We saw it eating people!"

"I don't know," she said looking depressed.

"Tomo-chan..." Chiyo said, equally depressed.

"But, there's something odd. I found her uniform in the bathroom," Yomi began. "It was all torn up. And then there was that big hole in the wall. Almost like..."

"Oh, Ah get it," Osaka spoke up.

"Get what?"

"That monster must be Tomo then."

Osaka got some weird stares from the others.

"Osaka, what are you talking about?" Kagura said.

"Well, it makes sense, don't it? She drinks that weird Scum Soda, she gets sick, ya leave her in th' bathroom and that's where she turns int' that thing, so her clothes rip apart. Then, she eats that guy, makes the hole in th' wall and escapes. Don't y'all watch the movies?"

The group shut up for a second and considered what the Osakan wonder had just proposed.

"You know... That actually sounds plausible," Kagura mused.

"But impossible," Yomi argued. "I have to admit it kind of fits, but that only happens in the movies. There's no way Tomo could have turned into a monster by drinking a can of soda. It's just stupid!"

"Yer probably right," Osaka answered. "Ah guess it does only happen in the movies. Ah just got to wonderin' where that 30 foot monster came from just now."

Yomi choked on her words and crossed her arms in frustration. "Whatever, but I refuse to believe that."

Meanwhile, somewhere in the city, Yukari was racing her bicycle through the streets, while checking her watch time and time again.

"Crap crap crap crap crap! I'm so late!" she cussed. "I can't wait to see the principal's reaction this time!"

Yukari was trying to think of some kind of excuse, like, she was slowed down by a traffic accident or something. Nah, she was riding a bike, no excuse. How about, held up by the cops. Nope, would give a bad impression. Mugged? No way in Hell. Lost on the path of life? Yeah, that would do.

But Yukari was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice all the people running away in the opposite direction, and the loud sirens in the distance, and the smoke, and the fire, and the helicopters flying by over her head.

"Huh? What's this all about? Twilight fangirl horde again?"

Suddenly, a thrashed helicopter was launched through the air, slammed into another, and they both crashed into a nearby building, where they exploded in a sea of fire.

"Hmmm... Wonder if it's Team Edward this time...," she said to herself.

She looked to where all the ruckus was coming from, and she saw something big making a graceful jump off the side of the building. It was black, and furry.

"Nope, Team Jacob, it seems..."

And then that...thing was coming right for her. Yukari's eyes went big and she started sweating a little, as she now stood in the shadow if this towering monstrosity, and she had to look up so far her neck started to hurt.

"Ehhhh... Hehehe, nice...monster;" she stammered nervously. "Down, boy. No no no, don't come here! Stay away! KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Meanwhile, back at what was left of the school. The police had arrived on the scene, and so had the ambulance they called a while back. While the medics were taking care of the wounded, Yomi tried to give an explanation of what happened.

"A giant monster, huh?" the officer said. "can you describe this...giant monster?"

"W-well, it had black fur, was about 30 feet tall, I think. Ehm, big claws, red eyes... Oh, and a tail! It had a tail for sure."

"I see," the policeman said as he scribbled down on his notebook. Too bad he wasn't writing anything down, but was making a mock drawing of Yomi in a straightjacket. A really crappy drawing at that. "And I suppose it also had three heads? Oh, and I bet it breathed fire too!" he said sarcastically.

Yomi frowned. "Something tells me you're not taking me seriously."

"What makes you think that?" he said.

"Well, how do you explain this?" she yelled, as she pointed towards the sorry state of the school.

He shrugged. "Terrorists?"

"And Tomo wants to become part of these nutcases?" Kagura whispered to Osaka.

When Yomi was done facepalming at the sheer idiocy in front of her, she continued. "Look, just ask my friends over there and they'll tell you the same thing. I'm not crazy, you know!"

"Okay okay, fine," he sighed. "Big black furry monster with red eyes, giant claws and a tail. Whatever."

Suddenly, his radio made the incoming call signal. He grabbed it and answered it.

"Officer Kita, we have a situation here. Tokyo is under attack! Repeat, the city is under attack!" it went.

"By what?" he asked.

"A large monster with black fur, red eyes and giant claws!"

"Sure, and I suppose it also has three heads..."

"This isn't a joke you imbecile! Get your ass over here, we need all the support we can get! Wait, it's looking at me! ... Now it's coming this way! It's definitely coming this way. I can see it clearly now! My God, what is that thing? It looks like a giant ca-" And the signal died out and there was nothing but static.

"Well, I guess I'll go check it out then," he said casually. "Excuse me, ladies."

"A giant ca-?" Yomi repeated as she turned to her friends. "Caterpillar?"

"Camel?" said Chiyo

"Carnotaurus?" Osaka guessed.

"Cactus?"

Everyone turned their heads to Kagura and gave her an awkward look. "What?" she said shrugging.

"A cat, you morons!"

There was their former classmate, Kaorin, with minor injuries, making her way to the group while being supported by her friend Chihiro.

"Oh, hey guys. You made it out too? That's a relief," said Kagura.

"That sounded an awful lot like sarcasm to me," Kaorin snarled. "But that's fine, cause I don't like you either, Kagura."

"I wasn't being sarcastic."

"..."

"But hey, can't be liked by everyone, I guess," Kagura said with a smile. "Just so you know, I have nothing against you."

Awkwaaaard!

"W-well, anyway," Kaorin coughed. "I saw it! It was looking right at me, and I could see its face. It was definitely a cat. A little weird looking, but I'm sure it was a cat. Huge teeth, and those eyes, I'll never forget 'em. Almost got me, too. Luckily, Chihiro saved me at the last moment."

"Hey, it was no big deal," Chihiro smiled. "At least I got to do something! Maybe I'll finally be able to hang out with you guy-"

"So, a giant cat, huh?" Kagura mused.

"Hey, guys?" Chihiro said desperately.

"A giant black cat," Sakaki muttered. She started dreaming about that giant cat being her pet, but she shook off that thought. A 30 foot man eating cat might not be the best idea for a pet. Still, a huge cat, wow...!

"Why do you always ignore me?" Chihiro wailed.

"Whoa, look over there, it's Yukari-sensei!" Chiyo said as she pointed to the entrance gate.

Indeed, Yukari came stumbling into the school grounds, looking a little shook up. In her hand, she dragged along what was left of her bike. The group, minus Kaorin and Chihiro, ran up to her.

"I don't get it," Chihiro said disappointed. "I finally get to appear in a story, and they just walk off like that and ignore me. I'm probably not going to show up again, I know it!"

"Hey, don't worry about it," said Kaorin. "You should be happy. You really don't want to appear in this guy's stories too much. Believe me, I know!"

"I guess," she sighed. "Well, suppose I'll enjoy it while it lasts..."

"Yukari-sensei, what happened? Are you okay?" Chiyo asked worried.

"Am I... Am I okay?" she screamed. "The game store didn't have that game in stock I wanted so much, I'm about to lose my job because I'm a whopping 30 minutes late for class, and I had a run in with the world's largest cat that tried to eat me! Oh, and on top of that, it stepped on my bike! It's totally ruined!" she ranted as she held the broken bicycle up. "I don't see how it could get any worse!"

"Oh, then guess I shouldn't tell you about that other thing..." Yomi said carefully, cornering her eyes.

"Other thing? What other thing?"

"It's about your car..."

"WHAT?"

Yomi took her to the spot where her car was partially sticking out the ceiling of the school, and Yukari nearly fainted because of the shock.

"M-my car... My beautiful car...," she cried. "Who would do such a thing?"

"Yeah, who would... Ahem...," Osaka said softly.

"Well, at least there's one disaster out of the question," Chiyo said.

"What was that, shrimp?" Yukari barked.

Chiyo quickly hid behind Sakaki and stood there shivering. Yukari was really pissed off now.

"That beast... That... That Tomo monster is so going to pay for this! I'll tear it to pieces!" she roared.

"Wait, what did you just say?" Yomi interrupted her. "What do you mean, Tomo monster?"

"That thing reminded me of her," Yukari explained disgruntled. "The fur on the back of its head was exactly the same as Tomo's haircut. With the spikes and stuff. Where is the little brat anyway? I need a punching bag right now!"

Yomi's face was as pale as milk. She shared some glances with the rest of the girls, who had about the same expression, except for Osaka, who had that "I told you so" look on her face.

"So, where is she?" Yukari asked again. "What's the matter with you all?"

"Ehhh... I think you already ran into her...," Yomi gulped.

"...huh?"

* * *

Wata : Just for the record, I don't hate Chihiro. But come on, she's just so ignored in the anime. I just wanted to point that out. So no going "OMG U HAET CHIHIRO, Y?" okay? Maybe I'll have her appear more often in future stories. Oh, and I know that Twilight wasn't around at that time, but just laugh with it. So, hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you soon!


	4. Act 3 : Tomo The Black Wildcat

_We continue our story where we left off last time. Tomo is on a RAMPAGE! In the city of Tokyo no less._

_I hear any of you say Godzilla, and I'll punch you._

_Anyway, I do not own Azumanga or Rampage. They're owned by Kiyohiko Azuma and Midway respectively._

_Enjoy!  
_

* * *

Act 3 : Tomo The Black Wildcat

"Man, sure looks like she's enjoying herself."

Kagura panted as she said these words when she saw what happened to the neighborhood she was in.

"Unbelievable," Yomi gasped.

All around them, barely any of the buildings had survived, and those that had had suffered heavy damage. There were large piles of burning rubble all over the place. Panicking survivors ran around hysterically in between the demolished vehicles in the middle of the road. Some of them were flattened, others on fire. There were even police cars among them. A little further, there was the husk of a pulverized tank. Medical workers did all they could, but there were more wounded than they could handle. Everything in the vicinity was a miserable wasteland. So much damage caused in practically no time, and it went on. The most rediculous part was that our girls were going after the culprit.

"Well, she's obviously been here," Osaka puffed.

"No shit," said Kagura.

"We'll follow the sirens in the distance. We're bound to find her when we do that," Yomi said convinced.

"Ehm, excuse me, Yomi-san, but are you sure about this?" the smallest spoke up. "Don't you think it's awfully dangerous? We might get...eaten or something."

"I know," she replied. "But this is our friend we're talking about here. I have to see her. I have to make sure it's really her in there. Besides, maybe we could bring her back to her senses. Part of her might still recognise us."

"Well, I'd say you're crazy," Kagura said as she rolled her eyes. "She tried to eat Kaorin. What makes you think she wouldn't eat us?"

"Speaking of which, I don't even know why I came along with you in the first place. We should just be nice little girls and go home like everyone else, you know?" she continued. "And why did you all come along anyway?"

"T' be honest, Ah'm just a major disaster tourist," Osaka answered.

"I want to see the big cat," said Sakaki.

"I have a bone to pick with Tomo for wrecking my car," Yukari sneered.

"I'm here because Yukari-sensei threatened to hit me if I didn't come," Chiyo said ashamed.

"I'm just tagging along," Nyamo admitted.

"Whoa," Yukari yelped. "Nyamo, since when are you here?"

"All along. You mean you didn't notice me?"

"Are you all serious? Those are the reasons?" Yomi grumbled agitated, walking in front. "You mean none of you are here because that's Tomo back there? She turned into a giant cat thing, and that's all you can say?"

"Ehhh... Oh yeah, and that!" the whole group said in unison.

"You know what? Fine. That's okay by me. If you don't want to be here, go ahead and run away. I'm going after her if I have to go alone," she yelled.

After a few moments of silence, Kagura spoke up. "Well, that's my queue. See ya later."

"Wait, you're actually leaving?" Yomi called out to Kagura, who was walking away.

"Yeah, you said it was okay, right?"

Yomi gave her an venomous glare. Kagura sighed.

"Look, it has nothing to do with Tomo, alright? But I don't have a deathwish just yet. I have my whole life to look forward to, and I don't want to end up in my friend's digestive system. I mean, I haven't even had a girlfriend yet, so no way in hell am I-errr, crap, I mean..."

Kagura's cheeks turned beet red. Her friends were looking at her like "what the hell did she just say?", as Kagura covered her mouth embarrased, realising she just blurted that out like that.

"I-I-I meant to say, I haven't even had a boyfriend yet! A boyfriend!" she stammered loudly, her tanned face as red as a tomato. If Tomo were here now, she'd probably never hear the end of it.

"Hehe, sure! Of course!" Yomi chuckled.

"I just mistook my words! Honest!" she yelled with her arms waving around. "I'm not gay!"

"My, my, Kagura. It's not like it's something to be ashamed of," Yukari laughed heartedly. "I'm happy you finally came out of the closet."

Kagura's head bobbed down, a horrified expression stuck on her face, which was still as red as ever.

"I told ya she swung the other way," Osaka whispered to Chiyo, who didn't even knew what that meant.

Suddenly, the metaphoric lightbulb appeared over Yomi's head. "Tell you what, Kagura. We'll let this whole incident go by if you stay with us. Besides, Tomo would be so disappointed if she'd find out that you care more about your own well being than about her."

"You mean, you'll forget about what I just said?" she asked timidly.

"Yeah, of course! Whatever you want."

"Fine," Kagura huffed. "Dammit, now I'm just being blackmailed," she pouted.

"Great, now let's get going!" Yomi ordered.

The group slalomed through the wasted cars and headed towards where all the ruckus was coming from, with Kagura trailing behind disgruntled. That was obviously where they could find Tomo.

"Say, Yukari-sensei," Chiyo said. "Something's been bothering me. If you came to school by car, why did you have your bike with you?"

"That's a very good question, chihuahua," Yukari answered. "I brought the bike in my trunk because I wanted to head into the city today."

"But, why?"

"Why? Have you ever tried to go to the city in the middle of the day by car? There's slow traffic everywhere! So I figured it'd be a lot faster if I went by bike!" she answered proudly.

"Ah, I see. That's our sensei!" Osaka said.

"Yet, you were still a half an hour late...," Chiyo pointed out.

"Yeah, and if I went by car, I'd still be stuck by now!"

All of a sudden, there was a very loud screech in the near distance. Sounds of explosions, glass shattering, and things breaking were audible. Everyone raised their heads; that was very closeby.

"Over there!" Osaka shouted, pointing at one of the buildings.

There she was, in the distance, climbing up the skyscraper with her claws. After that, one of the buildings nearby started toppling over. With a loud rumble and a huge dust cloud, it collapsed.

"Holy Hell!" Kagura exclaimed. "Did you see that?"

Two helicopters flew by over their heads, heading right for Tomo, and they both launched their missiles at her. Tomo leaped off the building and latched on to another on the opposite side. The missiles collided with the building, causing it to blow up violently. As the damaged skyscraper slowly started falling over, Tomo had made it to the top of the other building. There, she stood tall on her hind legs, and roared victoriously.

"Dammit, they're attacking her! Come on!" Yomi shouted.

"Is that so weird? She's destroying the city!" Kagura reasoned frantically. "Hey, where are you going?"

"I'm going to try to stop her!" Yomi yelled as she ran off.

"Have you completely lost it? Tomo or not, you'll get yourself killed!" Kagura shouted back at her, but to no avail. Much to Kagura's frustration, all the others started following her too. She facepalmed and ran after them. "Man, this is madness!"

Meanwhile, the choppers had opened machinegun fire on Tomo, who still stood at the top of the skyscraper. She covered her face with one arm and slashed at the helicopters with the other. She missed, and the helicopters flew a bit further before turning around again.

"The bullets do not seem to hurt it! I'm going in for a second try," one of the pilots said.

"Roger, I'm right behind you!" the other replied.

The first helicopter went in for the attack, but the bullets didn't even faze Tomo the cat. They were just like mosquito bites to her now. When the first one passed by, the other one approached. Tomo crouched down on all fours and waited for the second heli to come closer. At the right timing, Tomo made an enormous jump in the air and grabbed the helicopter with her paws. She sunk her teeth into the tail and bit it clean off, before letting go and landing back on top of the skyscraper with a devastating thump.

"Shit! It bit off my tail! I'm going down! Mayday, mayday!" the pilot shouted.

The chopper spun down, out of control, and when it hit the pavement, it blew up in a giant fireball.

"Damn! Higuchi's down! I repeat, Higuchi is down!" the other shouted in the transmitter, in a very panicking manner.

Tomo spat out the helicopter tail still in her mouth and caught it in her paw. She looked up at the other helicopter, that was hovering in the air, ready to open fire on her. Tomo roared, and threw the tail right at the other chopper like a spear.

"Oh fuck!"

The tail impaled the craft and it exploded immediately while still in the air. Chunks of smoking hot metal rained down, and the rotor system was flung through the air and cut through an abandoned truck, which then also blew up. Tomo grinned and emitted something that sounded like a chuckle, and then proceeded to slam down into the building.

The girls and teachers made their way through all the mayhem and destruction, until they found that all the growls and grunts were uncomfortably close.

"Jesus Christ! There she is!" Kagura yelled.

The monstrous form of Tomo was latched onto the side of the same building still with her claws, much like a regular cat would climb a tree. Her hands were oddly shaped now, like a combination of those of a cat and those of a human. Her fingers were shorter and thicker, like those of a cat, and also had retractable claws. However, they were a lot more moveable, and had more joints much like human fingers. Also, they were positioned like a human hand, with an additional thumb, so she had five fingers per hand and could easily ball them into a fist and grab objects. Also, she still had knuckles, and the hands weren't padded. Her arms were now very muscular, about the length of human arms, and with bendable elbows. Her feet on the other hand were much like the hind legs of a regular feline, with only four toes per foot, padded at the bottom and with claws. The heels were lifted up from the ground so she walked on her toes, but the knees were a lot lower than those of a real cat, so they looked more like human legs. Strangely, her legs were shorter and more stumpy in comparison to the rest of her body, but they were quite thick and muscular in order to support her weight. Her waist was slim, but her chest was wider and very powerfully built. And her head was way out of proportions. It was big, very big, about the size of her chest. A gigantic mouth with enormous sharp teeth; the fangs noticably bigger than the rest, and powerful jaws that could bite right through steel. Her mouth and nose stuck forward slightly, just like a real cat, and her large red and yellow eyes were placed the same way. Whiskers were located next to the nose, and on the top of her head, two regular cat ears. Finally, to top it all off, a strong looking, flexible tail beneath her back.

Tomo had turned into a powerhouse; a creature perfect for devouring, killing and destroying. But it was obvious that most of her power was concentrated in her upper body, as it was a lot more bulky than her lower body. She was a true hybrid; half black cat, half human. It was hard to tell that this monster was once a teenage girl, except for the fur at the back of her head, which was indeed the same as her previous haircut, just like Yukari said. And all this because of a stupid can of soda.

"Whoa, she's gotten huge!" Osaka gasped.

"That's Tomo? No way!" Kagura yelped.

"Unbelievable," Nyamo muttered. "I've never seen anything like that!"

"What a big cat...," Sakaki said in amazement. "Kaorin was right!"

"Suits her nickname well, though," Osaka pointed out.

"Tomo! Can you hear me? It's us!" Yomi yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Yomi, shut up! You wanna get it to notice us or what?" Kagura said.

"Well, yeah," was her answer.

"TOMO! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE, YOU BRAT!" Yukari screamed, standing at the base of the building. She certainly grabbed her attention with that, because she was now looking down at her.

"Yukari! What are you doing?" Nyamo yelled horrified.

"YOU'RE IN FOR A WORLD OF PAIN, MISSY! HOW DARE YOU RUIN MY CAR! YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THIIIIIIIS!" she raged on.

Tomo jumped off the building and came zooming down 20 stories. Yukari yelped and got out of the way, or she would be squished. When she landed on her hind legs, her sheer weight created a small crater in the asphalt, and chunks of the road were forced up. Yukari fell on her butt because of the huge quake. When the dust cleared, Yukari was staring her right in the eyes.

"Heh, n-nice kitty," she stammered, still on the ground. "N-now, ehm... S-so, about my car..."

Tomo crouched down on all fours and brought her face close to Yukari, who was starting to lose her nerve.

"H-hey, not too close... Don't you know me?"

Tomo growled softly, and then started sniffing Yukari for several seconds. Then, a puff of air shot out of her nostrils that nearly blew Yukari away, and then, she roared right in her face. Yukari held her arms in front of her face and curled up in a ball.

_Am I going to die?_

"Yukari, get out of there...," Nyamo said, full of worry.

"Sensei! Run!" Chiyo shouted.

But much to Yukari's surprise, Tomo just stood up again, grinned at her like she was making fun of her, and jumped back up the wall of the building. Yukari sighed in relief and stood up.

"Damn you and your intimidating form, Tomo. You haven't seen the last of me!" she grumbled.

"Yukari!" Nyamo yelled as she ran up to her. "Are you alright?"

"Whaddaya mean, am I alright? Of course I am! Just gave her a few nasty glares, and that Tomo monster went off running!" she laughed out loud.

"Really? Looked to me like you were about to piss yourself," Kagura said sharply.

"Hehehe... Well, actually...I think I'm in trouble..."

Everyone's eyes went wide open and they all backed off slowly.

"But wait a minute! Do you know what this means?" Yomi said. "Tomo didn't eat her, even though she could have! That means she did recognize Yukari-sensei!"

"I dunno," Kagura said skeptically. "Maybe it was the smell of the urine that made her back off... Cats have very sensitive noses, you know."

"Sh-shut up!" Yukari yelled embarrased.

"I'm just saying."

"Well, just to be sure, we should try to reach out to her somehow. Whoa, look out!"

The girls were just in time to heed Yomi's warning, as a load of debris came crashing down. After running away from it, they saw that Tomo was keeping herself busy ripping steel and armed concrete out of the building with her paws. Along the way, she managed to grab a person from inside the room. The man screamed, but quickly disappeared in Tomo's esophagus. After swallowing, she burped loudly.

"Hey, mind yer manners!" Osaka shouted.

Having fed, Tomo climbed up to the top of the building again. There, she jumped up and stomped down on the building with her full weight. The structure wobbled, and windows blew apart as the upper levels started to collapse. Rubble fell down the streets, and Tomo leapt off the top again, fell down and ejected her claws into the walls, leaving long, vertical scratchmarks behind, as she ripped through the side of the demolished scyscraper. Seconds later, the structure started to fail and crumbled.

"Uh oh, it's coming down. Let's get outta here!" Nyamo said.

With an eardeafening rumble, the once proud skyscraper came down, leaned away from the streets and crushed a smaller building next to it. A huge wave of dust plowed through the streets, and having already jumped to an apartment closeby, Tomo roared once again. She proceeded to spread the mayhem and punched through the windows, looking for some fresh human meat.

"She's going to destroy the whole city if this keeps up! We have to think of something fast!" Yomi panicked.

"Just calling her name isn't going to work. She's on a rampage!" Kagura said.

Yukari thought deeply and looked at Kagura, who then stared back at her. "What? What are you looking at?"

A wide smile appeared on Yukari's face, and she snapped her fingers in triumph. "I got it! That will surely work!"

"Wh-what will work?" Kagura asked suspiciously. She got this awkward feeling that it was something involving her though.

"You'll see!" she snickered.

Yukari inhaled as deeply as she could, and then yelled at the top of her lungs; "HEY, TOMO! KAGURA JUST ADMITTED SHE'S A LESBIAN!"

"WHAT?" Kagura barked, turning red once again.

Tomo's ear twitched and she froze in her tracks. There she hung from the side of the building for several seconds, not moving at all. She slowly turned her head and looked down at the group, staring up at her in suspense. Then slowly, paw by paw, she climbed down until she reached the ground, and creeped up to the girls.

"I think it worked," Yukari whispered as she winked at Kagura.

"B-but," the other stuttered, still blushing like mad, "I-I thought you would keep that a secret, you traitor!"

When she turned her head, Kagura was face to face with the monstrous Tomo, and that startled her quite a lot. Her whole body started shaking like a twig.

"H...h-h-hi, T-Tomo..., n-nice weather we're having, huh?" she stammered with a shaky voice.

_I'm going to die..._

But Tomo just stared back at her with big eyes until a small grin formed on her catface.

"Grrrrghhh!" she growled, and that growl gradually turned into something like a chuckle, and then she pointed her finger at Kagura.

"Grahahahaha! Grahahahaha!"

Unbelievable, but Tomo the cat was laughing her fur off, much to the dismay of Kagura.

"What? What are you laughing at, you knucklehead!" she shouted.

Tomo laughed so hard she had to hold her stomach and a tear appeared in her eye. A second later, she literally had to pull herself up from the ground.

"My God, it worked!" Yomi cheered. "Tomo still recognises us."

"Hey, what can I say?" Yukari boomed proudly. "I know my students!"

"Hmpf, just you wait, you overgrown furball," Kagura pouted angrily. "We'll see who'll be laughing when you get back to normal."

"Tomo!" Yomi yelled as she ran up to her. "It's me, Yomi!"

Tomo managed to regain her composure and caught her breath, as she looked down at Yomi standing right in front of her. She bended down calmly, obviously recognising her bespectacled friend.

"Tomo, thank God! I'm so happy you still know who I am," Yomi said on the edge of sobbing.

Tomo tilted her head sideways and growled softly. Other than a huff every now and then, she didn't do anything else. But her dilated eyes relaxed when she saw that Yomi was crying her eyes out.

"Tomo, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I should have talked you out of that bet. This was all a mistake, a stupid mistake, and it's my fault!" Yomi blubbered with tears streaming down her face. "I wanted to save you from all this, but I just let it all happen, right before my eyes. When you got sick at school, I thought... I thought for a moment..." Yomi choked on her words and had to swallow a lump in her troath.

_Yomi..._

"I thought I was going to lose you, Tomo! I was really scared, and I felt guilty. I even thought it should've been me who had to drink that soda instead of you. And now look; look at what happened to you..."

_Don't be so silly, Yomi. You know it's not your fault._

"I don't know what to do, but I want you to return to your normal self. I don't know how, but I'll travel to the other side of the world if I have to. So please, Tomo. I know you can hear me. Stop with what you're doing and let me help you!" she shouted.

Tomo grunted pitifully and raised her head slightly, and carefully brought her paw to the sobbing Yomi. Much to her surprise, the soft fur of her paw caressed against her cheek and wiped the tears away. Yomi returned the touch by gently grabbing her paw and resting her head on it. Tomo started to purr.

"Please, I'm begging you. Don't hurt anyone anymore...," she cried softly.

_Yomi, I'm sorry, but I didn't know what I was doing. Everything up until now was just a blur. It's like there's a monster that's taking over me, and I'm afraid I might lose myself again soon. I don't want to hurt you, or any of my friends, but this monster has a will of its own. Please, you have to stay away from me. I know I've done bad things, and I appreciate you wanting to help me, but you can't anymore._

_I know you are going to chase me anyway, so I have to get away from you as far as possible, before I end up killing you. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to save your lives, and thank you all for coming to look for me._

Yomi looked up to Tomo and she was amazed to see that tears were now richly flowing out of her big eyes.

"Tomo..."

_Yomi, you will always be my best friend, and I will remember you if I still can. I'm sorry...but while I'm still myself, I have to say goodbye to you. So, Kagura, Osaka, Sakaki, Chiyo, Nyamo, Yukari, and you, Yomi...goodbye..._

But time stood still as Tomo's ears twitched, and both she and Yomi turned their heads to the right. After a loud bang, a large shell came flying right towards them. With animal reflexes, Tomo threw herself in front of Yomi. With a pathetic whine, Tomo was thrown back. The powerful explosive shell hit her in the back, and as she was tossed through the air, large amounts of blood flew all over the place. Yomi watched the whole thing happen mesmerized and some of the blood landed on her face, as well as some of Tomo's tears. Before she could hit the ground, Yomi snapped back into tears.

"TOMO... NO!"


	5. Act 4 : Another Monster? Enter Lizzie!

_Chapter 5, Act 4_

_Yes, I am still alive, and to prove it, here's another chapter._

_I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to review.  
_

* * *

Act 4 : Another Monster? Enter Lizzie!

Tomo rolled across the street with a nasty wound on her back and crashed into a convenience store. There she layed, growling pitifully and not moving anymore.

"Tomo!" the whole group shouted, and ran up to the towering mega cat that was once their friend.

She had left a trail of blood on the ground, and there was a deep, charred laceration beneath the left shoulder blade, which was bleeding profoundly.

"Oh, this looks bad...," said Sakaki.

"She's still breathing, but we have to do something!" Chiyo panicked.

Yomi turned around dazed and saw 3 tanks further down the street; the one in front with a smoking barrel.

"Wh-what are you doing?" she yelled hysterically.

"Ma'am, please get out of the way. It is too dangerous here," it sounded from the megaphone.

"No, please, don't hurt her, she's our friend!"

But the tanks just kept moving forward, obviously not hearing what Yomi was saying. Desperately, she stood in the middle of the street with her arms spread out, trying to block the mechanical monsters' path.

"You don't understand," she tried once again. "That monster is our friend, she remembers us!"

"Whoa, look out!" she heard Kagura shout behind her. Right after that, she saw an angry Tomo jumping over her like in that scene from Free Willy. She landed right in front of the the first tank and grabbed it by the barrel. With her strong arms, she swung it around and slammed it into the second. Their pieces flew through the air and the first one barrel rolled and landed upside down, completely thrashed. The second took serious damage, but was still operational. Tomo solved this by punching through the armor and literally tearing it in two! The third was aiming at her and was ready to fire, but she managed to jump on top of it in time. She roared, and ripped off the top. The soldiers inside tried to scurry outside, but most of them were eaten in no time. One of them made it out and legged it, but was grabbed by Tomo quickly. With a scream, the man was thrown far away; so far that he was out of sight.

Yomi fell to her knees; both relieved that Tomo was okay, and heartbroken that she still continued to kill. As Tomo roared victoriously, new tears started flowing down Yomi's face.

"T-Tomo! Stop it!" she screamed.

But Tomo turned her head and hissed loudly at her, several times. Every time she did, it was like a knife tearing through Yomi's heart. Tomo, whom she just managed to reach out to, was now hissing at her, signalling her to stay away.

"Tomo..., why are you...," she blubbered softly.

Tomo shared one last glance with Yomi, and then ran off on all fours as fast as she could.

"Tomo! Come back!" Yomi literally screamed.

But Tomo didn't listen anymore. Yomi could only stare as she quickly hopped from building to building until she was gone.

"Yomi, you okay?" Kagura said as she and the others ran up to her.

"We were...so close," she sobbed defeated.

"What were those army guys thinking? They almost got you killed!" Kagura snarled.

"What are we gonna do now? That was our best chance, an' it almost worked too," said Osaka.

"I don't know... I'm sure she understood me, but what she just did... I don't think she wants us to be around her."

"That's strange," Kagura mused. "There's obviously still a part of her inside there, but the real Tomo wouldn't do all this. Maybe she ran away because she's slowly turning into a mindless monster."

"I guess that's the only explanation.," Chiyo said. "But what are we gonna do? We can't just leave her like this."

Yomi got up and shook her head. "We have to do something. But, we need help. I want to know how something like that could've happened to her..."

"Hey, you there! What are you doing here? It's dangerous," a strong voice sounded. The girls turned around and saw a bunch of soldiers approaching them.

"We're going to have to ask you to leave," the same one said.

"W-well, actually, ehh," Kagura stammered. "That monster, she's our friend!"

The soldier raised his eyebrow and looked at his colleagues. "Your...friend?"

"What she's trying to say," Yomi continued, "is that that monster used to be our friend, but she turned into that after drinking something strange."

"Yeah, sure. If you want to give an explanation, you'll have to talk to the Colonel. He's by the tanks further down the street. Now, could you all please move out of the way and let us do our jobs?"

The gang appologised and followed the directions that were given to them. At the line of parked tanks was a middle aged man with an intimidating uniform and stance.

"Are you the Colonel?" Yomi asked nervously.

"Yes, I am," he said plainly.

"I need to talk to you, if that's possible..."

"Could you keep it short, please? We're rather busy right now."

"It's about that monster...," she started.

"That Scumlabs monster?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "Don't tell me it used to be someone you know."

"Scumlabs monster? What do you mean?" Yomi asked puzzled.

Suddenly, Kagura tapped her on the shoulder and whispered something in her ear. "Scumlabs. Scum Soda. Makes sense, right?"

"Ah!" Yomi exclaimed. "Could it have something to do with a drink called Scum Soda?"

"Scum Soda...," he mumbled. "Sounds familiar to me. Sounds like something they would come up with. That monster, is she your friend?"

"Yes. She used to be."

"Very well. Wait here."

The Colonel turned around and walked up to some other guy that looked important. They discussed something shortly, before he came back.

"You can go with the Lieutenant. He'll take you to headquarters. They'll explain everything there."

"Thank you," Yomi said, taking a bow.

"Excuse me now."

"Are you guys coming?" she asked the rest.

"Actually," Nyamo announced, "I think we should be going back to the school. They probably need us there."

"We? Ah, come on! I wanna hear the story too!" Yukari protested.

But Nyamo grabbed Yukari by the arm and dragged her away. "Sorry, but the whole place is in ruins. We have to help. We have a responsibility, you know?"

"No fair! I wanna go to the army guys' hideout!" she screamed. "Dammit! Fill me in, okay?"

So then they were reduced to five. A few awkward transitions later, they were now at the headquarters, at the General's desk. And there they sat, wiggling uncomfortably in their chairs, feeling completely out of place.

"So," he began, "you claim to have information about the monster that's laying waste to our city," to which Yomi nodded. "Care to explain what happened?"

"Well, it all started this morning. My friend, Takino Tomo, and I, found a strange can of soda next to the street. I told her to throw it away, but she kept it. And, after some things happened, and she drank it. About a half an hour later, she started getting sick, and then she turned into that giant cat monster. She destroyed the school, and then moved on to the city."

The General softly nodded, his arms remaining crossed. "And you think it's because of this soda you found? It didn't happen to be called Scum Soda, did it?"

"Yes, actually."

"I thought so," he sighed.

"Ehm, excuse me," Sakaki spoke up. "We heard the name Scumlabs before, and they called Tomo a Scumlabs monster. Are they the ones behind all of this?"

"Scumlabs monster... That's what we started calling it. Excuse me, her. We thought it had something to do with them," he said. "And now, it seems we were right."

"So, Scum Soda was created by Scumlabs," Yomi concluded. "But why did a simple soda cause such a mutation?"

"Because it was contaminated with a toxin. This information leaked out only yesterday. Something went wrong during the manufacturing in America. Do you know about Scumlabs?"

"I've...heard the name, but that's pretty much it," Yomi shrugged.

"I see. Scumlabs is a company that appeared in the eighties, and was rumoured to be creating biological weapons. There were some lawsuits filed against them by environmentalists because the waste they produced was supposedly toxic and volatile. And then, one day, something went terribly wrong. We refer to it as the Scumlabs incident."

"So, what happened?" Kagura inquired.

"It was about 20 years ago. Three Scumlabs employees were in an accident at the facility in Peoria, Illinois, in the United States. The facility was completely destroyed, and I'll let you guess what happened to those three people."

"Ehm, they turned into monsters?" Chiyo guessed.

"That's right. All three turned into gigantic monsters, much like what happened to your friend. In less then a year; they managed to lay waste to many cities in the world, but it quickly became obvious to us that they had an objective."

"And that was...?" Yomi asked.

"To destroy every single Scumlabs facility in the world. It's strange, but that objective seems to be in the subconscious of those monsters. We fear that Takino-san now has the same objective."

"So you're saying that Tomo is out to destroy Scumlabs?"

"Yes, that's what we're expecting. Right now, we've evacuated the Tokyo facility and raised security to the highest point, but, we're not sure if it will be enough."

"What do you mean?" Chiyo asked.

"If Takino-san is the same as the original monsters, she's virtually unstoppable. They gain energy and become stronger by simply eating, and they have extraordinary healing capabilities. Any wound we inflicted on them was healed in mere minutes. I'm afraid it's the same for Takino-san."

"So that's why she was constantly eating people..." Yomi concluded. "But wait, if those monsters are unstoppable, what happened to the original three?"

"They are still alive. A Scumlabs employee by the name of Dr. Betty Veronica tried to destroy the monsters with a special ray gun, but it only ended up shrinking them."

"Pardon?" Yomi said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, she momentarily shrunk the monsters, and that's how the American military managed to capture them. They made sure to secure them before they returned to their original size again, and kept them hidden ever since."

"So, where are they now?" Sakaki asked suspiciously.

"Well... That's another one of our worries. You see, after being captured, the monsters were shipped to seperate cities in the world. George the giant ape was hidden in New York, Ralph the wolf was taken to London, and Lizzie the dinosaur, well...," he paused and cleared his troath for a moment.

"Wait, don't tell me...," Yomi gasped.

"I'm afraid so... Lizzie is here, in Tokyo. In fact, she's almost literally right here," he said in a serious tone.

"Ehh... H-here?" Yomi stuttered. "In this building?"

The General nodded. "In the basement. She's currently guarded well, and the security system isn't deactivated easily. If Tomo the cat manages to find Lizzie and free her, we'll have two monsters on our hands. Evidentally, we can't let that happen. We hope Tomo doesn't pick up Lizzie's scent, which would lead her here. We believe that these monsters can track eachother down with their enhanced sense of smell, since Lizzie has been acting restless ever since the events started. She too is sensing that something is going on."

"But there has to be some way to stop them! Haven't you been looking for a way to bring them back to normal in the meantime?" Yomi asked.

"We tried, believe me. We tried various ways to kill them, but it didn't work. We tried exposing them to various sorts of radiation, but it had no effect. Scumlabs was also working on something to convert them back to their human form, but we haven't heard from that for a long time."

Yomi sunk back into her chair ad thought about it deeply. "Maybe we should pay Scumlabs a visit then. Is there another Japanese Scumlabs facility besides the one in Tokyo?"

"Yes, the main facility is in Osaka, and there's a smaller one in Kobe, but I doubt you could get anything out of them. I don't think regular people are allowed in the facility even."

"It's worth a shot. I want to save my friend. Is there any way you could bring us to Osaka?"

But he shook his head. "No, we have our hands full right now. I'm sorry, but if you want to go to Osaka, you'll have to get there on your own."

"I see. Thanks anyway. We'll take our leave now."

The girls got up and took a bow. After that, they were guided out of the military headquarters. Once out, they discussed what they were going to do next.

"Are you serious about going to Osaka?" Kagura asked skeptically.

"Yes I am. I don't know, but I don't thrust Scumlabs at all. If they're really as corrupt as people say they are, they might have something ready, but refuse to tell anyone about it."

"Why would they do that?" Chiyo asked.

"If they make stuff that turns people into monsters, I wouldn't be surprised about anything. And if it's somewhere, it's probably in Osaka. Besides, if Tomo wants to destroy all Scumlabs facilities, she'll come to Osaka too. This is the only chance we have to save her."

"Fair enough," said Kagura. "But how are we supposed to go to Osaka? I don't think there's any trains running right now."

"I'm not sure...," she said doubtfully.

"Oh, ah know!" Osaka spoke up. "We could ask Nyamo! If we explain her, she might take us there with the car!"

"That's an idea, but Osaka's not by the door. If Nyamo can't do it now that the school's in ruins, it's still not an option. We should go home for now, I'll give her a call and I'll let you all know."

After they agreed, they caught a ride back home in the jeep, the same way they got there.

A while later, the monster form of Tomo stood in the midst of the smoking ruins of an ex-building. All around her were smashed tanks, helicopters and other military vehicles. There were barely any survivors in the vicinity. Shattered letters were littered all over the street, which once spelled out : Scumlabs. The Tokyo facility was wiped off the map, and Tomo was satisfied that it all went so easy. Within growls, she picked something up. A strangely familiar smell. Like her instincts told her to, she ran off in the direction her nose pointed to. Sprinting on all fours, hopping on buildings and leaping off again, causing mayhem and chaos in the streets down below. But no matter where she went, she was always hunted. Another swarm of helicopters flew in from the distance. Tomo readied herself for the counter attack.

What followed was another symphony of mayhem and destruction.

"Really? You will? Thank you, Kurosawa-sensei. I'm in your debt. So, where do we meet? Uhuh..."

In a relieved tone, Yomi was talking into the phone. Nyamo was excused from the school the next day, so she could pick up the kids with the mini van and drive them to the city of Osaka.

"Okay, we'll see you there. I'll let the others know. Yeah, goodnight."

While she was making the phonecalls, Yomi had the tv on to keep in touch with what was going on in the city. She lived in the suburbs, so she figured she'd be alright there. At least, that's what she hoped.

"Hey, Kagura. We're good. Nyamo will take us to Osaka tomorrow. Yeah, all of us. Oh my... Kagura, do you have the tv on? Then turn it on, you have to see this!"

"In a new development, the Scumlabs monster that is on the loose in Tokyo has just destroyed the Tokyo Scumlabs facility. The military claimed that the factory was under heavy surveillance, but that the monster, quote, tore through the defense with ease and leveled the building in mere seconds. This confirms that the previously speculated goal of the monster to destroy every Scumlabs facility in the world, is indeed a fact. So far, the monster has made thousands of victims, and caused billions worth of damage."

"Shit! Tomo is after Scumlabs! The General was right!" Yomi said. "We don't have time to lose. We leave tomorrow morning. Nyamo wil come to pick us all up at 7, so be ready... Yes, I know it's nuts, but we don't have a choice. Okay, bye."

Yomi hung up the phone and immediately started dialing another number.

"Hey, Osaka! Yomi here. Nyamo will take us to Osaka... No, not you, the city! I know it's going to be confusing, but go with it."

After about 15 minutes, Yomi was done calling everyone and plumped down into the couch, continuing to watch the news. After another nailbiting 30 minutes, another bulletin rolled in, and it didn't bring good news at all.

"Oh no, this can't be real..."

"We are live at the Tokyo military headquarters, where the Scumlabs monster has opened up another attack! We are not sure why, but after destroying the Scumlabs facility, the monster rushed over here. The forces are doing everything they can to stop it, but it doesn't seem to be working. It's like a warzone out here!"

The footage was shot from a helicopter, showing Tomo down below plowing through the tanks and vehicles, and causing extreme damage to the building. After a while, she suddenly disappeared, like she went down into the basement.

"Oh boy...," Yomi said to herself, just when the phone rang. She hurried to answer it. It was Kagura again.

"Yeah, I know. This doesn't look good. Tomo must have tracked down Lizzie."

"Yeah... So we're finally going to see the famed monster Lizzie..."

"Kagura!"

"What? I mean, I can relate! If I was kept in a cage for twenty years, I'd be pretty pissed too."

"Probably, but it would've been better if it just stayed there."

"Hey, maybe it's not like that. Maybe Tomo is just sick of the tanks and choppers coming after her, and she want to teach them a lesson at their source. Hell, if I were a giant mutant monster, I'd probably do the same thing. Maybe she's just going to walk away after she's do- Oh, no wait, there she is..."

Yomi stared at the tv screen with wide eyes as the reporter went berserk.

"Oh no... Oh my God, this can't be happening! This is the end, the end! If you're just joining us, a second monster has just risen from the rubble of the military base! It...it appeared to have been kept in the basement, and the cat monster has just freed it. Holy Mother of God, what is that thing? It looks like some kind of dinosaur! This development could end up being a worldwide catastrophe! Everyone should evacuate the city as quickly as possible! A second monster is on the loose! I repeat, a second monster is on the loose!"

"Yomi? Hey Yomi, you still there? Are you seeing this?" Kagura said through the phone.

Yomi moved the horn away from her face and stared at the screen in total awe.

"Oh... Fuc-"


End file.
